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Topic: Headers (Read 35036 times)

Headers, of course, were used on the Trans-Am cars back in the day. Probably any kind of headerunder the sun was tried at one time or another. Starting in June, 1968 when Jere Stahl sent offhis first set of road race headers to Roger Penske, Stahl headers were some of the best performingand most popular headers in use among Trans-Am teams.

Here's a nice set of restored Stahl headers owned by Robert Lodewyk. Jere Stahl tells me theseare the drag racing version of his Camaro header.

A closer look at the header flanges. Same header flanges used by Douglass Muffler Mfg.

Robert Lodewyk also owns this set of original Stahl road race headers which came off the '67 Trans-AmCamaro raced by Hugh Harn, who raced out of the San Francisco Region of the SCCA.

My car as well as Hugh Harns 67 Z ran in the Sears Point race in September of 1969. Its quite possible that these headers were on Harns car at that time. Now 40+ years later they will be on a car it run against back then---Kinda COOL

These are the factory-supplied GM headers for the '67 Z-28 Camaro. Ron Ogilvie, parts manager forBill Thomas Race Cars circa September '66 - August '69, tells me that these headers were designedat BTRC and built by Douglass Headers (Douglass Muffler Mfg). Ron says that he personally paintedthe headers the silver-blue color and placed each set in a burlap bag for delivery to GM. These headerswere probably the most commonly seen headers on Trans-Am cars up until Stahl started providing Camaro racing headers in mid-'68.

Photo courtesy of Dick Lewis

Photo courtesy of Dick Lewis

Factory supplied instructions on how to do the installation. The headers were furnished "loose" andit was up to the dealer or owner to install them. No headers were installed on the assembly line.

Here's an original set of GM header gaskets. The heat resistant material is Raybestos-Manhattan No. A 56.

Pages from the Douglass catalog.

Here is an April '67 ad for Camaro small block headers by Douglass.Most of Douglass' advertisements showed big block Chevy headers.

A little intro from Bill Thomas, found in his '70 catalog. There are probably not enough superlatives to sayabout this man who did so much for Chevrolet performance back in the late '50's and throughout the '60.

Michigan-based Kustom Headers became the supplier of Z28 headers to GM starting in 1968.I don't know if it was based strictly on cost but certainly that probably factored into theequation. The most high-profile team to use Kustom Headers were the "Chaparral" Camarosof Jim Hall.

Close-up view of a GM part number on the header flange. For some reason there are a fewdifferent GM part numbers for these Kustom-built headers. These were also available directfrom Kustom and those are stamped KH-37 on the flange.

Some Kustom header flanges are squared-off on the ends and some are pointed.There does not appear to be any clear reason why. Note the 4-bolt collector flanges.

Info provided in the '68 Z28 brochure. Note the different part number(s).

Nearly 20 years ago, Dick Lewis from Ohio went to the effort to get 25 sets of Bill Thomas headers reproducedusing 25 sets of original upper header flanges that he had acquired over many years of being in the Camarohobby. There was talk of producing another 25 but the second set was not going to have the original upperflanges. I am not sure if those 25 got made or not. These headers were copied directly from the original setwhich are currently owned by Rick George of Rick's Camaros. Years later, Larry Christensen also reproducedan unspecified amount of these headers. The headers below are from the first set of 25 reproduced by DickLewis and were sold to Frank Dihartce. Thank you Frank for sharing these photos with us.

1967-1968 Hedman Hedder ads. These were known more for ease of fit than outright performance but I have includedthem here for identification purposes in case somebody has an old set they are trying to identify by the bends of the tubes.

Here are some very neat NOS Headers by JR, made by Beeline Engineering out of Hillsdale, Michigan.I have seen them called JR Headers and Headers by JR but they were not marketed as Beeline Headerseven though they were the manufacturer. These NOS headers were obviously never installed and stillhave the instructions, header gaskets, etc. It is neat to see the Raybestos Manhattan #A56 gasketmaterial shown earlier for use with the Douglass/Bill Thomas headers. These authentic vintage headersare owned by Roger Hefty and I thank him very much for sharing these photos with us.